Hulu TV: It's official. Pay to watch.

[kamaboko]

I'm not sure if anyone here uses Hulu, but they announced a pay program today. $9/month for what they consider "plus" programming. In short, if it's worth a minute of your time, there's a fee associated to it.

[whiskeylover]

Who cares? Most shows are also available on their network's websites.

/me does not Hulu

[TheNerdAL]

So we have to pay to use Hulu now or just pay to use Hulu on portable devices and on TV?

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Cool! Do they still attach advertising? Does it run outside the USA?

I've been hoping for a movement away from advertisements funding everything. That whole industry undermines privacy and we have ended up depending on it completely.
This could be a nice push in that direction.

(And to be clear: I am happy paying a reasonable price for a service I enjoy. I prefer to if it means they stop being creeps, like Facebook. I think that whole scenario would be better if Paypal died in a fire and we had friendlier online payment systems. HyperWallet is a really good one).

[Giant Speck]

If you only use Hulu to watch very recent episodes of shows, then it's still free. Since most people use Hulu this way, it will remain free for most users.

This new Plus thing is for those that want to have instant access to an entire season's worth of shows. It's for users that want to be able to watch any episode from any season of any show featured on Hulu. This isn't something that was even offered for free on Hulu.

[Crunchy the Headcrab]

Cool! Do they still attach advertising? Does it run outside the USA?

I've been hoping for a movement away from advertisements funding everything. That whole industry undermines privacy and we have ended up depending on it completely.
This could be a nice push in that direction.

Wasn't that the point of Cable tv also? No advertisements didn't last long on those cable channels.

[tgm4883]

They will still advertise. Link for the lazy http://blog.hulu.com/2010/06/29/introducing-hulu-plus-more-wherever-more-whenever-than-ever/

[Mr. Picklesworth]

They will still advertise. Link for the lazy http://blog.hulu.com/2010/06/29/introducing-hulu-plus-more-wherever-more-whenever-than-ever/

Summary for the really lazy :b
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/29/hulu-plus-announced-ipad-iphone-sony-and-more-on-board/


If you only use Hulu to watch very recent episodes of shows, then it's still free. Since most people use Hulu this way, it will remain free for most users.

This new Plus thing is for those that want to have instant access to an entire season's worth of shows. It's for users that want to be able to watch any episode from any season of any show featured on Hulu. This isn't something that was even offered for free on Hulu.

Ah. I'm not a fan of artificially degrading digital content (I guess they _may_ delete the videos from their servers after a few months, but somehow I doubt it), so the first bit of that isn't particularly interesting to me. However, it looks like they'll also host shows that have been off the air for a while. That bit is more interesting!
Still USA-only, though. Bloody networks.

[gnomeuser]

Seeing as Hulu so far hasn't been able to license their content for use outside of the US so far I am not even able to test it.

[LeifAndersen]

So, can anyone explain to me why anyone should by this? To me, it looks like the only reason is if you want to be able to watch the back catalog on Linux (without some hacking). Because netflix seems to offer all of this, and more, and at a cheaper rate.

[samalex]

It depends on what type of content they add and keep. If they start adding then pulling content that's no good. Also they need to get content from all the major networks for it to be worth much. I don't care to watch reruns of A-Team or Facts of Life, instead I want to watch the most recent shows and past seasons of shows that are still currently being played so I can drop cable and DVR service. Even with commercials that would be worth $9/month, which this plus $8/month for Netflix would be all we need.

Sam

[CharlesA]

Looks like it's still free to watch older shows. Works for me. If it's 10 bucks a month I'll just get netflix.

[Timmer1240]

I use it and like it but Im not paying for it so Ill just watch what is free screw em!

[Legendary_Bibo]

I really like Hulu but it doesn't work with Lucid for some reason. :confused:

Wait scratch that, it plays the advertisements perfectly, but not whatever it is I want to watch.

[JDShu]

$9 seems like a reasonable price to me, but my computer can't run Hulu anyway because there isn't enough RAM.

[mamamia88]

is there an equivelent of play on media server for linux that streams hulu and netflix with a bunch of other stuff too ps3?

[kamaboko]

I really like Hulu but it doesn't work with Lucid for some reason. :confused:

Wait scratch that, it plays the advertisements perfectly, but not whatever it is I want to watch.

Works great for me on Lucid.

[Dustin2128]

meh, there are other ways of watching T.V. online. Megavideo is legal, right?

[doorknob60]

Everything that used to be free should still remain free (like the previous 5 episodes of any show), it's just now there's more for an extra fee. That's completely fine with me, though I won't likely get it (if I was gonna spend $10 on something like that I'd get Netflix instead). I'll still use it for watching episodes of shows I missed (which I always miss).

[Legendary_Bibo]

Works great for me on Lucid.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with having 64bit flash. I think I might look into setting up Boxee.

[northwestuntu]

I'm wondering if it has something to do with having 64bit flash. I think I might look into setting up Boxee.

hulu has a linux desktop app.

[Legendary_Bibo]

hulu has a linux desktop app.
Then I will look into that because I couldn't get Boxee to work under Lucid either.

[Legendary_Bibo]

Hey whaddya know the desktop thing works perfectly and I like it better than the hulu site already! For one thing high quality videos don't get jumpy.

[HangukMiguk]

is there an equivelent of play on media server for linux that streams hulu and netflix with a bunch of other stuff too ps3?

This is what I've wondered too, but searches leave me high and dry.

I wouldn't think it would be insanely difficult to implement, with open source transcoding possible, and a decent enough DLNA client to use (although I would use something other than MediaTomb, allow both PS3 and 360 users to run this, ushare...although it may need a big rewrite).

I figure a ushare, mencoder, an rss parser, sql, and a flash video downloader would be all that's really needed. Too bad I don't know how to program. I would spearhead this thing, because I've been looking for a PlayOn alternative since I got back on Linux.

Although, Netflix really isn't needed for any console, so long as you have the PS3 disc for it, you're good to go.

[HappinessNow]

I won't be paying for Hulu.

even graboid (http://www.graboid.com/) is less expensive at $4.99 per month.